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For Immediate Release

FAMM Applauds ONDCP Call for New Direction in National Drug Policy

Says Times Have Changed, Government’s Approach Must Too

WASHINGTON - Families
Against Mandatory Minimum President Julie Stewart commended today's
release of the 2010 National Drug Control Strategy, the administration's
much anticipated blueprint for
changing the federal government's approach to reducing illegal drug
use. Ms. Stewart met with Mr. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, in February to discuss the
administration's proposed new approach.

Today, Ms.
Stewart released the following statement:

"Fighting
drug addiction with incarceration only makes about as much sense as
battling al-Qaida with a slingshot. The times have changed and we've
developed more effective weapons for this tough battle.

"FAMM
wholeheartedly support Mr. Kerlikowske's goal of implementing
evidence-based prevention, treatment, and enforcement tools. We have
long believed that criminal justice debates in this country
would benefit from more science and evidence and less emotion and
politics.

"This
blueprint could not be more timely as Congress prepares to consider
bipartisan legislation to establish a blue-ribbon national criminal
justice commission that would examine all aspects of the
system."

Senator Jim
Webb (D-Va.) introduced S. 714, the National Criminal Justice Commission
Act, on March 26, 2009, which was passed out of Senate Judiciary
Committee on January 21, 2010. The bill received
widespread bipartisan support and has 37 cosponsors in the Senate,
including Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Arlen Specter (D-Penn.), Lindsey
Graham (R-S.C.), and Sen. Orrin G Hatch (R-Utah). On April 27th, a House
version of the commission bill was introduced
by Reps. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), Marcia Fudge
(D-Ohio), Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-Va.). More
information on the National Criminal Justice Commission Act bills is
available on FAMM's website,www.famm.org.

For details about the administration's 2010 National Drug Control
Policy, as well as a copy of the plan, please visit the following link:www.ondcp.gov.

###

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Families Against Mandatory
Minimums is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization supporting
fair and proportionate sentencing laws that allow judicial discretion
while maintaining public safety.
For more information on FAMM, visit http://www.famm.org/ or contact
media@famm.org.

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